Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux (oil on wood 25cm x 32cm)

Mont Ventoux (oil on wood 25cm x 32cm)

Painting below Mont Ventoux the other day, almost too beautiful to paint.  Not only is the volume of space arching over the mountain so vast and overwhelming, but there is also lavender in the foreground at the absolute peak of its colour intensity.  The challenge of getting anything of that down onto a small wooden panel in a couple of hours is absurd, but that's what I have tried to do.

evening painting at Lacoste

Lacoste,  evening I  (25x32cm, oil on wood)

Lacoste, evening II (25x32cm oil on wood)

Lacoste, evening III (oil on wood 25x32)

I made these three paintings over the course of an evening in Lacoste, just behind the Marquis de Sade's chateau.   On the first one I was able to work quite slowly because the light didn't seem to be changing very much.  As the sun goes down the light moves very quickly, and I could see the shadows travelling across the ground as I worked.  The warm light on the greens makes them start to glow, and things become defined that were invisible a few minutes earlier.  It's difficult to get anything down quick enough in a convincing way.  The third one took about 20 minutes, but sometimes it's good to paint faster than you can think.